Malbec and Making Empanadas

Spring into Malbec! World Malbec Day was celebrated this past Sunday, and to assist in my celebration of the day, and Malbec in general, the kind people at Frederick Wildman & Sons sent me a few bottles of Malbec to try. Since I was working with a wine from Argentina, I also decided to cook up a little Argentine-inspired dinner, empanadas, but with a vegetarian, Italian twist.

Caprese empanadas! I started out by making a beautiful, summer filling of shredded mozzarella, a chiffonade of basil, and chopped tomatoes. As you see above, I bought some gorgeous tomatoes, or so I thought. On the inside, they were still wintry, pale, mealy, bleh. Luckily I had a can of chopped tomatoes that I was able to quickly drain for the filling. It helps to be prepared!

I knew making the empanada filling would be the easy part, but the dough intimidated me a little, as dough tends to do. This dough, however, could not have been easier to work with. I followed a recipe for Chilean Empanadas for the dough, but I substituted butter for shortening. Many empanada recipes use shortening or even lard, but I really preferred to use butter. After some research, I found that it is a 1:1 ratio for butter to shortening, and I got to chopping my Kerrygold into little cubes.

For whatever reason, blending the butter into the dry ingredients this time was a cinch! Perhaps practice makes perfect? Once I added the milk and let the dough rest for 20 minutes, it was time to roll it out.

I usually have a sticky mess of dough or something so dry and cracking that I can not roll it out. This dough was so fun to work with!

I rolled it out on our kitchen table and started cutting circles with a large tupperware container to make the empanadas.

Once the dough circles were cut, I added a scoop of the empanada filling, then sealed each empanada with a fork and brushed with egg. My empanadas cooked at 375 for 35 minutes.

Sadly, I overstuffed and undersealed the empanadas, so they all exploded a little in the oven. But they dough became light, flaky, fluffy, and golden brown, just as I had hoped. Though not much to look at, the empanadas were quite delicious with a cheesy, garlicky center, dotted with fragrant bits of basil

I served the empanadas with a side of orange-infused plantains, and there was, of course Malbec. We didn’t drink all of these bottles in one night; as you can see from the photos, they are all at different times. I received the Malbec about a month ago, and we have been sampling ever since.

Here we have a 2008 Trapiche Oak Cask Malbec, a Michael Torino Estate Don David Reserve Malbec, and a 2009 Michael Torino Estate Cuma Malbec, made with organic grapes. Each of these Malbecs exhibited that gorgeous, dark red-purple color that Malbec is known for, but I loved how different each of these wines were.

The Trapiche offered aromas and flavors of cherry vanilla and a little bit of oak and cedar. The Don David, which we sipped with the empanadas, was smokier and spicier, still with nice fruit flavors, but with a long, lingering finish.

The Cuma was, to me, the fruitiest, with flavors of baked fruit, like dark cherry pie. I really enjoyed all of the Malbecs we tasted (and there are more!), and it was interesting to learn a little more about Malbec, especially how it goes well with Easter and spring dishes such as lamb.

Up next will be some Chilean wine and hopefully a Chilean recipe or two. I love how receiving wine samples encourages me to try new things and to look up new recipes.

Have you tried a new-to-you food, wine, or other item lately?